The 3 images on the left are of the 1/72 Pavla kit and on the right are of the Flying Machines 1/48 RE.2005.

What follows is the article I wrote for Stormomagazine back in 2006 on the Flying Machines kit. Since then both Sword and Special Hobby have issued 1/48 kits that are just as good if not better. Swords 1/72 RE.2005 is also worth a look as the Pavla kit is now OOP.

This is the 1/48 Flying Machines RE.2005. Having built Falcons RE.2005 (and converted another Falcon kit into the sole RE.2006), this is a much easier kit to build by comparison. The overall attention to detail is quite something, of particular note is the realistic depth of the rear tail wheel well (no blanking plate used here!) and the high level of detail found in both the cockpit and the main wheel wells. The time taken working up the wing assembly is time well spent. This involved thinning the trailing edge of the wing parts (and the edges of the wheel well aperture), plus sanding down the roof of the wheels wells as thin as possible.

One trick I use quite often is to attach the top wing halves to the fuselage first, before offering up the one piece lower wing. This ensures a neat join along the wing fillet. The rest of the model is quick to put together. Two additional tweaks I carried out was to open up the nose gun troughs and to build up the height of the cockpit sills to get the canopy to fit.

I used WEM paints for the colour scheme. The only point of concern was the decals. As I applied them, it seemed to me that some elements were oversized, such as the wing fasce markings and ID numerals. Despite a nice glossy finish to the paint, there was still a bit of silvering.

Despite this, this model is by far the best RE.2005 kit produced and really captures the look of what many consider to be Italy's foremost aircraft design of WWII, even though only 49 or so were made.